International strategy

International Development belongs to the five objectives of KEDGE strategic plan

Strategy

We aim at developing our brand awareness & reputation, and to cover the specific needs of international students and partners, in order to develop our revenue through the quality of our research, our programmes and the attractiveness of our home and offshore/affiliate campuses. More specifically, our main challenges are the following:

Maintain the ability of our Faculty to produce high quality and impactful research, especially within our three Centres of Excellence and five areas of Expertise, and to train students and professionals, through our international talent recruitment strategy.

Build our brand awareness, by focusing on our programmes with the highest level of attractiveness for international students:

Offer a valuable multicultural student experience from our home campuses, by increasing the international student body, and by adding an international dimension to our internal culture.

Increase international student satisfaction by improving their experience before (admission process), during (pedagogy quality) and after the school (employability in France & abroad, active alumni network).

Use our off-shore campuses to give access to our expertise to a student body that would not come to our home campuses, for financial or cultural motives.

We have dedicated substantial human and financial resources, in order to support our international development strategy and achieve our ambition.

Implementing a quality and accreditation policy

To have a vision, mission and a positioning which is resolutely international must lead to getting international accreditation, confirming that the Strategic Plans have succeeded.

As such, at the core of the Kedge international strategy is the understanding that the objectives set out in the 2015-2020 Strategic Plan can only be achieved through a vigorous quality and accreditation policy. In this respect, Kedge Business Schools has succeeded in renewing AACSB accreditation in 2015 and holds all three international accreditations.

Regarding international rankings, KEDGE has been ranked in the top 60/80 European Business Schools since 2007. In December 2016, Kedge Business School was ranked 33rd in the Financial Times among other European Business Schools ranking. Kedge MBA was also ranked 22rd among the world’s MBA.

Programme internationalisation

Our objectives are the following:

Educate managers to perform internationally;

Offer programmes to attract foreign students;

Ensure an Executive Education portfolio for ‘home-based’ and ‘international’ executives;

Collaborate with corporate recruiters to determine graduate international profiles; and

Guarantee the integration of CSR into management practice.

Below are a few examples of programme internationalisation at KEDGE:

All programmes are defined in terms of skills relating to the employment market. In terms of graduate international skills, programmes cultivate language skills, geo-strategic awareness, action-learning abroad and self-knowledge coupled with openness to other cultures

All programmes conform to the Bologna and ECTS frameworks

A policy of curriculum internationalisation has been implemented

A growing number of management courses are taught in English, especially for programmes such as KEDGE Bachelor, International BBA or “Grande Ecole” master programme

One third of English taught classes from International Seminars are delivered by Faculty and Researchers from partner institutions.

International partners

The management of the academic partnership portfolio is handled by the International Development office, whose mission is to promote international educational exchange and to foster and strengthen the international character of the School by introducing, supporting, and developing a wide range of international and intercultural educational opportunities for national and foreign students (graduate and undergraduate), faculty, and researchers.

Kedge continues to make considerable strides in improving the overall quality of its academic partnership profile, while at the same time, maintaining an adequate network that allows all students to have a minimum of six months of international experience prior to graduation. While many students chose to obtain this experience through internships abroad, nearly half of the students in the “Grande Ecole” master programme, and all of the students in the IBBA and EBP programmes, gained this experience through the vast network of study abroad partners.

It is obvious that the strategy for partnership development continues to place a significant emphasis on developing partnerships with accredited institutions as a basis for quality assurance. In instances where the academic institution was not EQUIS or AACSB accredited (or in certain cases, EPAS or AMBA accreditation), the new partner was judged to be in the top 10% of academic institutions of a particular country, or en route to gaining accreditation through its internationalisation policies and strategy. An exception to this rule was the convergence of the former Toulon partners, that consisted of mainly non-accredited institutions, and are reflected in Table 8.2 below. Of the 15 new partnerships that were developed for the business-related programmes over the past three years, all but two were accredited (87%). The overall accreditation rate has risen to 56% (EQUIS/AACSB only), which up from 45% previously, and when EPAS and AMBA partners are added to the equation, the accreditation rate reaches 72%.

275

partners

66%

accredited overall

Student mobility office

The Student Mobility Office is responsible for all of the administrative aspects of study abroad, including the sending and receiving of students on an exchange basis with academic partner institutions.

Kedge has recently introduced several measures that are designed to improve the overall study abroad experience for the students, and to improve the efficiency of the Student Mobility Office. Specifically, the Office has:

Reviewed its selection processes for all programmes to improve quality assurance by creating a special Committee dedicated to the selections. It is composed by members from the Student Mobility Office, Programmes, Data Management and Quality Control Units.

Successfully implemented multi-campus harmonized selection processes, having a single selection for the PGE program (Bordeaux and Marseille campuses) and for the KBA programme (7 campuses), thanks to an internal software and videoconferencing connections.

Included incoming exchange students in international student unions dedicated to the welcoming of international students (Interact/Melting Potes), which allows international and French students to mix from the beginning of their arrival at Kedge, resulting in higher satisfaction and greater integration for both communities. It is also a great way to share best practises among partner universities.

Implemented the BE GLOBAL process, so as to make sure that all the means are applied to facilitate the integration of students, professors and staff going abroad (both directions, coming to France and going abroad). It also enables Kedge to be more visible thanks to the organisation of different events such as the study abroad fair, the EBP Partner day, and the like.

Included international regular students in the incoming orientation sessions, which are no longer solely devoted to exchange students. It allows student to mingle, better integrate and, in general, is a good way to share and enlarge our expertise to a broader scope of activities. This globalisation of the orientation session is part of the BE GLOBAL process.

KEDGE ABROAD

The practice of establishing offshore campuses has been a key component of the Kedge international strategy for over 13 years, beginning with our collaboration with Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and eventually opening campuses, Suzhou, China (2010), and in Dakar, Senegal (2010). This strategy of offshore campus development responded to both academic and economic goals. Academic goals include the strengthening of our positioning, the internationalisation of the faculty and student body by recruiting internationally, the offer to Kedge students of additional opportunities for study abroad, increased research opportunities by developing bases in emerging countries, and the development of pedagogical engineering. The choice of having two campuses in China responds to the need for diversification of risks and to serve different publics (executive in Shanghai, pre-experience in Suzhou). Economic goals include the access to new markets (in terms of student recruitment), and the offer of new opportunities to European firms or to firms located in the countries where we have campuses (executive education offer, internships, job offers, corporate events).

The programmes offered on offshore campuses are identical to their namesakes offered in France. The admission, promotion and graduation processes are identical regardless of location. Kedge has recruited faculty and staff for the offshore campuses (except affiliate campuses). Courses, in each discipline, are coordinated by a permanent faculty on the Bordeaux or Marseille campuses who verify that contents, pedagogy and evaluation are consistent for the same course wherever it is offered. Students on these campuses have access to the same information as students on the French campuses.

An offshore campus coordinator from the International Student Office works closely with the Associate Dean of Programmes to assure uniformity of standards across campuses. The School senior management is travelling regularly to the offshore campuses to insure smooth cooperation with the local partners.

INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY

The International Advisory Board is chaired by the Dean and Executive Director of the School. Meetings take place approximately once a year, and in addition to those already mentioned, involve the Director of International Development, and one representative from each of the Business Units. The most recent meeting took place in August 2016.

The current Board Members are:

- Director of the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business

- Executive Director of Rotterdam School of Management

- Dean of the Faculty of Business of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University

- Dean of EGADE Business School

- President & CEO of Cossette Communication in Canada

- Dean of Korea University Business School

- Provost & Vice President of Academic Affairs at Bentley University

- Deputy Vice Chancellor & Vice President at RMIT College of Business

- Director of HEC Montréal

- CEO of Ashridge Business School

- Dean of the School of Business and Economics at Maastricht University